'Bouquet of clumsy words, a simple melody.
This world's an ugly place, but you're so beautiful to me.'-Going Away To College by blink-182.

It was a dark, snowy night in Minnesota. He hadn't seen her for ages and he hoped he would tonight. Just to see her, to tell her. His feelings were so strong.
So here he waited, outside the same venue in which they had met about a year or so ago. Inside there was some gritty punk band playing, just like every other Friday night. Every Friday she came here, he had found out on the night they had met. She had come backstage, telling him that his band was the best she had heard in ages, asking for their record. He silently dreaded the fact that there might have been another band after his that caused her to have the same reaction.
He zipped up his jacket slightly more so it was now touching his chin. The snow had settled and was starting to get heavier. Please don't let this all go to waste, she must be in there.
A few passers by were giving him strange looks, almost mocking the guy carrying a bunch of limp tulips, shivering in the snow, waiting for the beautiful girl he hadn't seen for almost a year. Maybe he was strange. What if she wasn't here? What if she didn't want to know him? What if she had a boyfriend? It had been a long time.
A thousand thoughts went through his mind. If she wasn't here, then he would have driven 2,000 miles from California for nothing.
His best friend, Mike had tried to warn him of these things before he left., but he needed to see her. He needed to tell her how he felt, even if she didn't feel the same way.
People had started to come out of the club now, trampling on the snowflakes he had watched fall so gracefully to the ground. A minute or so passed and he wondered if she might have already gone, not recognising him and walking off into the bitter night. He hadn't seen her. He would have recognised her beautiful face a mile off. He was confident that she still remained inside.
Five minutes passed, it felt like an entire lifetime. People had stopped strolling out of the club, still no sign of her. This was probably it. She wasn't there. Sighing and giving up on his attempts, he turned of the heels of his soaked-through converse and began to walk off down the snow covered street. Tears began welling up in his eyes, facing the fact that he had come all this way, and would never see the love of his life again.

"Billie Joe?"

He knew that voice. He would never forget it. He span around only to see her standing there in all her glory. Long black dreadlocks falling over her shoulders, her dark eyes staring curiously into his.

"Adrienne!" He gasped, amazed that the beauty stood in front of him still recognised him.

A smile formed on her lips as she ran towards him and threw her delicate arms around his shoulders, pulling him close. "I missed you." He whispered in her ear, breathing in her gorgeous scent of perfume and the fruity shampoo she uses.

"I can't believe you're here!" she said, pulling out of their embrace to study him. "Look at you! Your hair is amazing!" She lightly patted his new dreads. "Now we match!" She joked, pointing at her own head.

Billie Joe laughed and studied her. She looked ten times better than he remembered. She looked good before, but her image now was just amazing. "You look different...erm...you look prettier...I mean, you were pretty before just...you know, today...you look...er..."

Adrienne giggled. Billie Joe was so shy and so sweet. She knew what he meant, her appearance had changed quite a bit since she last saw him. So had he, but one thing was for definite, he still had that innocent look about him that made you want to give him a hug.

Billie Joe cleared his throat and held the bunch of flowers out to her. "I...er...got you these. They're pretty...er...like you." Why was he sounding like he couldn't form a complete sentence? She probably thought he had lost his ability to speak over the past year.

Adrienne's eyes grew wide with delight. She took the limp flowers out of his hand, smiling as if they were the most generous gift anyone had given her. "Thank you." She smiled, gazing into his shimmering emeralds lovingly. "You shouldn't have! Just you being here is the greatest surprise I could have ever dreamed of!"

Did she really mean that? Was she really happy that he was here?

Billie suddenly realised that he was staring at her like a gormless idiot and hadn't said anything. "Oh, honestly. It's nothing." Congratulations, Billie. A full sentence.

"Nothing? Of course it's not! They're beautiful. I haven't been given flowers for-"

"Look in the envelope."

"What?"

"The envelope attached to the flowers. There's something in there I want you to see."

Adrienne flashed him another one of those heart melting smiles. "Ooh! More surprises!" she squealed.

Billie watched her as she delicately tore open the envelope and carefully unfolded the pink paper. He had spent ages trying to find a suitable piece of paper for her. He didn't really want to tear a page out of his song notebook like he usually did when writing notes for his housemate, Mike. In the end he had found a box full of rose scented note paper in his mother's house. He had also stolen a black fountain pen off of her to make his handwriting look a bit more presentable. He wanted everything to be as perfect as he could make it for her.
He watched has her eyes scanned along the words, reading what he thought to be one of his best works so far. He watched the snowflakes melt on he paper, smudging the ink slightly.

"It's a song." Billie said blushing slightly." I wrote it about you.....It's called 80."

"Can you do one thing for me?"

"Sure." Billie said. He would do anything for her. He had already spent all his money on gas to get here and had spent almost two hours in the snow, just to see her.

"Can you sing it for me?"

Billie didn't hold back. He carefully took her hand into his and began singing the song. It didn't sound as good as it could have been with music, but it was better than nothing. Adrienne's pretty face lit up as he started singing the first line, not taking the smile away until he had sung the very final note.

"It's beautiful!" She smiled, throwing her arms around him and giving him a peck on the cheek. Billie turned an attractive shade of purple. "Thank you so much. It's so sweet of you. No one has ever written a song about me. Ever. You're such a good songwriter, Billie Joe!"

Billie blushed again. He hated being told he was good at something. It always made him really embarrassed.
They pulled out of their hug and there was an awkward pause. Billie finally broke the silence.

"Well, I think you're beautiful. And I just needed to find the perfect way of saying it." He couldn't bring himself to look up from his feet while confessing everything he had been feeling over the past year. "Adrienne, I love you. And I want you to be with me."

There. He had said it. A year's worth of beating himself up over what he should do was over and he had finally confessed to her about his true feelings. As embarrassing as it may have been, it was finally out in the open.
Billie looked up from the floor to see her once smiling face fall into a sympathetic frown. She pulled her hand out of his, and shifting her gaze down to her feet, tracing patterns in the snow with her toes.

"Billie...You're really sweet... and I'm sure you would make someone very happy. But...we can't be together. It just can't happen. My heart belongs to someone else."

He felt as if he had been hit by a bus. His world had come crashing down before his eyes at the revelation that the one person who he hoped would have feelings for him had moved on. He was stupid to think otherwise. Billie felt tears well up in his eyes and he turned away from her, not wanting her to see him cry.

She put her arm around him, squeezing his shoulder comfortingly. "Aw, Billie, please don't cry. Please. There's plenty more people out there that would love to go out with you. You're generous, sweet, attractive...Lots of girls like that thing."

"But I don't care about lots of girls." He sobbed. "I care about you."

"Billie, I can't help it if I'm already with someone else. You know, if I was alone, then I would maybe consider your offer." She paused, thinking for a second. "We can still be friends."

Billie Joe wiped his red eyes and turned to face her. "I knew coming here was going to be a waste of time. Mike was right."

He shrugged Adrienne's arm off of his shoulder and began waking down the road in the thick snow, not turning his back to look at the one person who he thought would make his life complete. He ignored her cries of his name and carried on, tears streaming down his face. The snowflakes fell on him, melting on his body as his life melted into the ground.